I define Toxic Clutter as items in your home that you are not using and that make you feel really bad about yourself. Don't let Toxic Clutter rob you of the space in your home AND your self esteem and self worth.
According to Psychology Today, clutter causes stress in part because of its excessive visual stimuli. It also signals to our brains that our work is never done and creates guilt, anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed.
It can be a result of never having developed helpful habits and routines needed to stay organized in the first place. Perhaps you were raised in a very cluttered home. Because of this, you were never taught or modeled the habits needed to keep your things organized and uncluttered.
Excessive clutter and disorganization are often symptoms of a bigger health problem. People who have suffered an emotional trauma or a brain injury often find housecleaning an insurmountable task.
Clutter can be a physical manifestation of mental health issues, Walsh tells WebMD. Those overwhelmed with "memory" clutter may have an undue preoccupation with things in the past and become depressed. Those who can't toss out items because they worry they will need them may be too anxious, he says.
Clutter can make us feel stressed, anxious and depressed. Research from the United States in 2009, for instance, found the levels of the stress hormone cortisol were higher in mothers whose home environment was cluttered.
“An absence of clutter could reflect a cluttered, chaotic psyche – what Freud would have called a defence against internal conflicts or clutter,” she says. “A clutter-free environment might suggest someone who is not able to tolerate the untidiness or uncertainty inherent in life and relationships.”
“There are four types of clutter: paper, digital, emotional, and spiritual,” she says. “Physical and digital clutter are symptoms of emotional and spiritual clutter.” Years ago, Hemphill started as a professional organizer.
Compulsive decluttering is a type of disorder that is classified within a broad name, obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. Compulsive decluttering is the act of throwing items, or clutter, away, or getting rid of them in an attempt to "clean up" what one with the disorder may think is cluttered.
Sometimes, living with anxiety, depression, or stress brings on clutter. If you're overwhelmed by sadness or other negative emotions, you might not have the energy to clean and organize. Or, you might use shopping or accumulating things to manage your feelings.
If you don't clean your house, it might mean you are busy and have little time to clean and organize. It might be a sign that you have too much stuff. Or it might be the result of having young kids in the house who are usually not motivated to clean up after themselves.
Psychologically, a messy room can represent:
A disorganized mind. Feeling overwhelmed. Difficulty letting go (common for hoarding behaviors) Trouble focusing on a task.
Mental health problems associated with hoarding include: severe depression. psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Four kinds of clutter
Behavioral/psychological: Clutter caused by depression, attention deficit disorder, low self-esteem or lack of personal boundaries.
Personality. Many people who have hoarding disorder have a behavior style that includes trouble making decisions and problems with attention, organization and problem-solving. Family history. There is a strong association between having a family member who has hoarding disorder and having the disorder yourself.
Hoarding gets worse with age, which is why it's often associated with older adults, but it usually starts in childhood.
Clutter: Possessions are disorganized and may accumulate around living areas. Collecting: Possessions are part of a larger set of items. Display does not impede active living areas in home. Hoarding: Possessions become unorganized piles preventing rooms from being used for their intended purpose.
The rule is: put away your things immediately and avoid handling them more than once after you're done with them. That's it.
“Cluttering is another behavior typical in folks with ADHD. Leaving items out as visual cues is a common way of compensating for an unreliable memory or inadequate time-management system, but to the untrained eye it can resemble hoarding,” she says.
Clutter continually tells your brain that work isn't finished (you have to clean up!) You find it hard to relax physically and mentally in a messy environment. Clutter causes anxiety because you are never sure how much work is needed to get things organized again from scratch.
Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli (visual, olfactory, tactile), causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren't necessary or important. Clutter distracts us by drawing our attention away from what our focus should be on. Clutter makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally.
What Your Clutter Is Trying to Tell You is not your typical 'clear your clutter and be happy' story. It spills the beans on why you haven't been motivated to handle the mess, and it shows you how to use your clutter as a catalyst for growth so you can create more space, prosperity, and peace in your life.